the galah

Part of the group the protesters represent are those that had jobs,but were given the sack because of the vaccine mandates.Take for example the 100 nurses,14 midwives and 10 doctors who worked for health boards and who were just some of the reported thousand workers in the health care sector who no longer can work. You must have heard the recent calls by some education administrators for the unvaccinated sacked staff to get vaccinated as they no longer have enough staff in some areas.. You must have wondered why a government would implement a policy that results in someone who has a heart attack in auckland having to wait over an hour for an ambulance when the hospital is only 7 minutes drive from the patient,like was in the news a couple of days ago. So they are there to support hard working new zealanders who were thrown on the scrapheap by the government.

Don't you think its crazy that people believe having a 3rd shot of the same thing will protect them from omicron,when even the government acknowledges that the first 2 shots have given them little protection. And the sheep somehow believe that though protection will wane over time, the same as it did with as the first 2 shots,somehow its different because they call it a booster,instead of a third shot. I get the impression many people think the booster shot is different from the first 2 shots. Yet official websites confirm that for anyone over 18 "the booster dose will be the same dosage(amount) of the same vaccine,as your previous 2 doses". Its hilarious in some ways.

I remember buying tickets for the South African game against the hannan shield team( combined mid/south canterbury and north otago teams). I had arranged to take the day off work. Then they went and canceled it, supposedly to give the police a rest. The polls had said our district was the most pro tour region in nz,so the cancellation didn't go down well with the locals. The previous time i had seen an international team was when the lions had played the hannan shield team. That day didn't end well either. I was only 16,but had managed to save enough to buy myself a brand new Datsun sunny,but while driving home after the game,stopped in a que not far from the rugby, i watched a fella in my rear view mirror gazing at the crowd,just before he rear ended me as he screeched to a halt. Still,it wasn't too bad and i had a great run with that car.

NZ media are just peddlers of government propaganda.Journalism used to champion freedom of speech,but they are the opposite now. If you look at the protests in wellington,the Police have become willing pawns in the arrest of previously law abiding citizens. Institutions who once had the respect of all new zealanders have alienated forever a certain part of the population. Of note all the unvaccinated people i know simply believe in the rite to choose what they put in their body.Whether people take a vaccine or not is up to the individual. I haven't yet met anyone who has said people shouldn't have the choice to get vaccinated if they want.So when the media and government label everyone who hasn't had the vaccine as anti-vax,And lumps anyone who attends a rally into the anti vax group, its all a lie. Its just another way of manipulating peoples thoughts.

An interesting story on the stuff website at the moment. Headline says ACC confirm 1708 covid vaccine injury claims. obviously that number have thought their reactions serious enough to claim. Amongst other things it says 627 so far have been accepted,513 declined and 568 to be decided.Most seem to have cost ACC under $500 but 12 have cost between $10,000-$50,000............. Fewer than 4 claims have been lodged for fatalities........the ACC states,as if thats a good thing.

If you had been watching the turnovers today you would have noticed they weren't very large. But what was very noticeable was the last race,which probably wasn't the strongest 1 win race you would see, seemed to clearly have the highest turnover. To me it was yet again proof that the average punter is just as happy to bet on any race ,as long as they think they can make a $. Had it been a 6 horse field of higher quality with a short priced favorite,punters wouldn't have bothered.Just look at the turnovers they get on races run at auckland as proof of that. So the key to get punter participation is more about the exposure a race gets,in this case the time slot on a wednesday just before tea and not having a dominant favorite that puts the average punter off.

actually people should read an article currently on theconversation.com titled whats the difference in protection against omicron between 2 and 3 doses of vaccine. it explains why the australian health minister expects the definition of fully vaccinated to change to three doses instead of two. it says emerging evidence suggests 2 doses provide 0-10% against infection from omicron,and 35% protection from hospitalisation 5-6 months after the second jab. it also states 3 and a half months after your 3rd jab your still only 30-40% protected from infection,and that will continue to drop over time.hospitalistion is higher with the 3rd dose but will drop over time as well. Why should the 2 dosed people get let into our tab's or racecourses,as it sounds like they are just as unprotected and as much a cause of spread as the unvaccinated. Has there ever been such a farce in ones lifetime.

Another article on stuff today to scare everyone as much as they can. Todays story says the latest modelling shows there may be millions of nz covid infections,and hundreds of thousands of those will be confirmed cases by testing. It says there will be 460 deaths if a high uptake of booster,but 560 deaths if only 70% uptake. Doesn't say how many if no uptake. So load up the car with the families youngsters and get down to the chemist for the booster as quick as you can brodie. Stuff and the government has warned you. I see a study undertaken by otago and wellington universities a couple of years ago found an estimated 500 per year die from the flu in nz. A dr michael baker was one of the high profile familiar names behind that study. Better book in for your flu jab as well brodie,as it looks like the flu each year is almost as deadly.

Yes would be the answer to both.The cost of each test mentioned would be what comes out of his budget for testing. opps,the "and his research was continued to be funded with new parameters" actually doesn't apply to the new york man. They are trying to be pro active in uncovering doping. I had thought i had typed that bit onto the bottom paragraph of my original post,and when it didn't appear i wondered where it went to,so that explains that.

The article was published in a New York newspaper,the times union.I don't know how to post links,but the headline was "New York lab losing battle against doping in horse racing" . Its a rather long article but at the top it has quotes contained in the story which you can click on which takes you directly to that part of the article. "who are you kidding" is one of those,so that would speed up your search for the quotes from the head of New Yorks testing lab. I think you fall into the "who are you kidding" group chief. He also says it costs US$180(270 nz$) per blood test and US$250(nz$375) per hair test.He complains about not enough funding anyway.And his research was continued to be funded with new parametres. Also you should note so much is political over there when it comes to who gets funding for research,appointments made to positions and the like. I read an article last year about one former outspoken hardline anti doping vet, who worked for one of the high profile State racing authorities..When they had a change of leadership at the top of that states racing leadership,done through political contacts,it was expected he would lose his $400,000 job and some of his projects would no longer be funded,as he had been rocking the boat too much.. Well though and behold this anti doping vet was reappointed to the surprise of many,but with it came a change of rhetoric and actions around doping. Apparently he no longer believed that doping was as much of a problem as he had previously thought...and his research continued with new parameters.

Well an article published in the last couple of days in the USA quoted a dr george maylin,head of the new york horse racing drug testing lab,commonly respected as one of the most advanced in the U.S". Seems he wouldn't agree with you chief. heres just a couple of his quotes. When asked why the performance enhancers described in the indictments were not caught by testing maylin said" he can test for some of the drugs,not all.He was not familiar with some of the compounds described in the indictments, therefore can't test for those...I don't believe anybody knows what the heck these things are,if anything" as to EPO "His lab,along with most facilities in the U.S. can only test for 3 varieties of EPO,while scientific literature cites 82 kinds of EPO worldwide...Are they being used.i don't know, but they've been synthesized ,they're available. So if your testing for EPO's and your only doing 3 and theres 79 others out there,who are you kidding". seems to me he answered some of the questions you are mulling over chief.

We could do the back and forth thing again but i'm not in the mood today for that. As to the Curtin thing. Your not stupid. When you said i trawled through the list because of my so called obsession,well actually i didn't. It was published as a list of USA clients,so instead of going through them all, i just looked for the name of the person who had made regular trips to new york,who had numerous connections with trainers and owners who operated from the yonkers track,who had been the most vocal person in criticising anyone who dare suggest the all stars had used products which were not picked up in testing to enhance performance,who had been one of the stables high profile owners,who had openly used his own forum at the time(harnesslink) to criticise Jeff Gural from the meadowlands about mr gurals decision to bar certain trainers from his tracks because of their use of performance enhancers,who would have had a financial motive,etc,etc....... So i looked under that persons name and there it was. Does it prove anything.......NO. Heck there may even be 2 John curtin's from nz. although whats the chances of that? So if you don't think questions should at least be asked then go ahead and keep your head in the sand where you like it to be. I actually looked for only the 2 names. The second one I looked for was the tritton name. I did that because i always believed the tritton australian stable at the time had used performance enhancing products which they weren't testing for. You only had to look at how they got a massive improvement from the horses of other trainers,claiming that constant galloping was the key,with some gullible journalists claiming it was a new revolutionary way to train.To me at the time the connection was his father who raced many of his horses at yonkers. I had no idea how it worked,but there had to be a connection. And you guess it,peter tritton stables is on the client list of the corrupt one. So i've answered your question and will leave it at that.

So thats your take on it. You think because i have said a John Curtin from NZ appears on the client list of the most high profile corrupt Vet in the usa,that i am saying John Curtin is a cheat. If thats your take on it then it seems you have drawn an inference from his being on that list.. What i'm saying is it raises serious questions.Surely you can see that or is your mind that closed to information that doesn't support your view.

Well the stable that trained the most high profile horse for John Curtin in nz harness racing is obviously the trainers of his reportedly $4,000,000 purchase auckland reactor, who Curtin was part owner/syndicate manager. Thats the stable that Curtin wrote several articles about, heavily criticizing anyone who dared say anything bad about the All Star stable.At the time his articles seemed to have a personal touch to them. If its not the same Mr Curtin,then he needs to set the record straight immediately. Do you think he will do that Chief................ Interesting how our TAB take betting on racing from Yonkers in New york.Its obviously previously been as crooked as,with 3 of their top 10 trainers charged.Evidence of drivers pulling horses. You have to remember they only went after the bigger fish.Why would the TAB subject their NZ customers to a product like that.If the nz TAB had any integrity they should have pulled that product long ago.

Interesting that Harnesslink has actually published the client list of the corrupt Vet found guilty this week in new york. Obviously some news media have printed it in the USA. So what does it mean.Should they have published it? Theres a few hundred names on that list,and it redacts the specific address of the corrupt vets clients,but does show what state they come from. It doesn't indicate what they were purchasing and says"while prosecutors say Dr seth fishman was not actively practicing veterinary medicine,he was licenced as a vet and could have provided legitimate,legal treatments to or instead of the illegal products. I guess you would be rather brassed off if your name appeared on the published list. It seems to relate to people within the USA. One interesting name,which may be just coincidence, Is.... A JOHN CURTIN from NZ. Now i could be wrong but i don't know of any state with NZ as its initials in the USA . So given previously harnesslink was used to publish many opinion pieces from a mr John Curtin from NZ, in which he used to vehemently attack anyone who said certain things about the stable he raced horses from in nz,doesn't it all seem a bit strange. I thought mr Curtin was best known as the first person in NZ to get covid,contracted while he was in New York. I repeat the article says the clients on the list may have been provided legitimate, legal treatments from the Vet with the apparently well known reputation for peddling supposed performance enhancers,but what those on the list were supplied with was unknown.Is it just anat an unfortunate coincidence someone who supports a certain stable has a name that appears on that list.Is the John Curtin from nz the one we know??????

I agree that the most notable factors of his drive were the consistency of his speed and the fact the horse was never pushed outside its comfort zone to establish and maintain the break on the field. What resulted was confirmation that the horse did not have the natural staying ability for those tactics to work. You could argue that Cox should have known that beforehand and i don't see anything wrong with the stipes asking the question. But Cox used those tactics with the intention of giving him an advantage over the others. So to penalise any driver for a positive(not excessively positive) drive like we saw last night in my opinion would be ridiculous,and i anticipate the powers to be already know that anyway.

I'm getting a bit cynical as well gammalite. Maybe we feel that way when things don't go right. I've just backed a couple today since i came home. Dramatist and pembrooks destiny,both stopped badly after 1000m and finish about 300m last.I guess better to do that than run an unlucky4th,but it makes you wonder if your better with a dart sometimes..

I think punters just want to see the drivers pull out when they have the opportunity. It did look like american me and new york minute both had the chance to come to the outside for a clear run earlier,and while i think they may have not have placed,we will never know.I think betterzipit looked the most likely for the 2nd day.

I don't whats better to back a loser or to not back a winner.I've been following the horse letsgodancing and its forever been unlucky,often positioned where it had no chance.Well today to me it looked the bet of the day given its price,but unfortunately for me an appointment i had dragged on longer than expected and i got home just after the race finished. $32 seemed unreal to me. Don't you hate it when that happens..

Sport in general seems to be on the decline . Also Southland as a rule always had the old school,integrity is paramount attitude on the racing and personal side of things..Off the track they appeared to frown upon some out of the region trainers who would turn up and engage in extra marital relations. I have no idea what its like these days,but 20 years ago they seemed happy making a reasonable living and doing something they enjoyed. It wasn't all about the money.Young people now days seem driven by different goals and aspirations. I personally don't think the current generation is as happy as previous ones despite having all the up to date technology. As far as those still competing. I see T Larsen hasn't even got a drive tomorrow.Seems to drive ok,but small fields also mean less driving opportunities.

As i was watching the winton meeting yesterday i thought how it had declined participation and competitiveness wise. It got me thinking why is that? It was only 20 years ago that harness racing in southland had enough experienced and talented trainers and drivers to run meetings with full fields,and without the need for any of the drivers to come from canterbury as happens now days. And the most obvious observation in my opinion was how there seems so little participation from the current generation of members of families steeped in tradition and success in the sport. 20 years back on southland racetracks you had people of all ages competing,but they were dominated to some extent by men in the 20-40 age bracket. It was common to see multiple brothers and sometimes sisters from families like the Hunter,Norman,Barron,Shirley,Swain, and Skinners.Then you had the father and sons like the milne,beck,hamilton,baynes,Lee,scobie,Bond,Gray and Buchanan. Then there were the likes of Brown,Adams,Mclellan,Paisley,mclachlan all with good sized teams. Often the daughters of trainers were married to the sons of trainers. And these were hard working folk. I remember i worked for a trainer who thought nothing of overseeing the training of 40 horses then when the horses were finished for the day,it wasn't unusual for him to go and do something like crutching 200 lambs after tea. But it seems,with the odd exception that their sons and daughters have not followed in their parents footsteps as they had. Why is that? What does that say about the future? Its also extremely noticeable if you drive around parts of Southland now,gone are the sheep and the standardbred broodmare or two in the paddocks. Now its all just cows. Is it all too costly to buy land and the returns no longer justify such a career? Just an observation,and while the sport will continue to be a source of entertainment and fun,its obvious we have been lucky to have experienced the best days already.

You put the video up,and like i say it always tells the story.Anyone who watches the video can make up their own mind. I never said it wasn't going to drop out to last,and yes i have done my own stats as to where the winners in those mile races down south draw. There is a definite pattern. But if your opinion is that Play Philly was driven in a manner to obtain the best possible finishing position,then that about sums up why i often disagree with you. So on this occasion the people with the arbitrage and algorithms, as you put it, were mugs in my opinion to bet on a $1.40 shot to win,when that horse was driven by Mr Close.And so it proved. As i have said before,mr close is one of the most naturally talented drivers in nz,but as doomed stated earlier,punters deserve better than to see a $1.40 shot driven like a 50/1 shot.Thats my last comment on that race.

Just wanting it to have a soft run before the bigger races for 3yo fillies that are to come in Southland. Just taking the punters for mugs. But the stipes enable it through their inaction. It is what it is.

That reply makes me smile as well chief. I know i annoy you to a certain degree.

Someone needs to tell them to take the caps off the binoculars when watching the races.